Pediatricians vs. Deniers
I have written often about the danger of parents who refuse to allow their children be vaccinated. It's almost always because they are misinformed or refuse to believe scientists who have time and again proven that vaccines don't, for instance, cause autism, and that...
Newtonian Moon Base
Newt Gingrich was mocked this week for saying, as president, "...by the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American." Forget the fact that we have an international treaty prohibiting any nation from declaring the...
Space Science
As a child of the dawn of the space age, I still get a little excited seeing a NASA launch, like yesterday's liftoff of the Mars-bound Curiosity rover. How cool is that we're sending a a nuclear-powered mobile laboratory to gather and analyze the Martian soil,...
TAM9: Our Future In Space
This was one of the highlights of this summer's James Randi Educational Foundation Amazing Meeting 9. It's a panel discussing our future in space and, in particular, whether humans should continue exploring in person or stay on the ground while our technological...
Michele Bachmann’s Dangerous Lie
Michele Bachmann has been catching flak for comments she made about vaccines this week, comments which put her into the same qualified-to-lead-America camp as Jenny McCarthy. Monday night, Bachmann went after Rick Perry for an executive order he signed in 2007...
Michael Shermer’s Believing Brain
I became familiar with Michael Shermer's work through his presentations at the James Randi Educational Foundation's annual Amazing Meeting, where Michael is almost always the first speaker. In addition to publishing Skeptic magazine, he has written several books,...
Space Shuttle Launch Window
Neil Monday was on a flight out of Orlando on Thursday when he looked out the window and saw the departure of another flight -- the Space Shuttle Discovery beginning its final mission, the 133rd time a shuttle has lifted off from Earth -- so he pointed his camera out...
Kids with Autism
Two weeks ago, I spoke to the St. Louis Skeptical Society at one of their monthly Skeptics In The Pub get-togethers. The topic was Skepticism In The Media (Or The Lack Thereof), and one of the items I touched on was the access given by Oprah Winfrey and others to...